Apes Ch 8 Notes
Chapter Outline – Chapter 8 – Environmental Health and Toxicology
I. Risk, Probability, and Hazards Risks and hazards—some avoidable, some not—compromise everyday life. A. A risk is a measure of your likelihood of suffering harm from a hazard. 1. Such a hazard may cause injury, disease, economic loss, or environmental damage. 2. Risk assessment is projected as a probability: a mathematical statement about how likely it is that harm will result from a hazard. It gives the estimate of an event’s actually happening. 3. Risk management involves deciding whether or how to reduce a particular risk to a certain level and at what cost. B. There are four major types of hazards. 1. One major hazard is a cultural hazard, such an unsafe working conditions, smoking, poor diet, drugs, unsafe sex, poverty, criminal assault, etc. 2. Chemical hazards are harmful chemicals in the air, water, soil, and food. 3. Physical hazards include radioactivity, fire, earthquake, floods, etc. 4. Biological hazards come from pathogens, pollen, other allergens, and animals such as bees and poisonous snakes.
II. Toxicology: Assessing Chemical Hazards A. Harm from chemical exposure depends on the amount of exposure (dose), frequency of exposure, which chemical is exposed, the body’s detoxification system, and one’s genetic makeup. 1. Toxicity measures how harmful a substance is in causing injury, illness, or death to a living organism. Several factors to consider are: a. dose, the amount of a substance a person is exposed to, b. frequency of exposure, c. age and size of the individual exposed, d. the health of the body’s detoxification system, and e. the genetic makeup of the individual, which is also important for determining sensitivity to a toxin. 2. Five major factors can affect the harm caused by a substance. a. Solubility. Water-soluble toxins can move
I. Risk, Probability, and Hazards Risks and hazards—some avoidable, some not—compromise everyday life. A. A risk is a measure of your likelihood of suffering harm from a hazard. 1. Such a hazard may cause injury, disease, economic loss, or environmental damage. 2. Risk assessment is projected as a probability: a mathematical statement about how likely it is that harm will result from a hazard. It gives the estimate of an event’s actually happening. 3. Risk management involves deciding whether or how to reduce a particular risk to a certain level and at what cost. B. There are four major types of hazards. 1. One major hazard is a cultural hazard, such an unsafe working conditions, smoking, poor diet, drugs, unsafe sex, poverty, criminal assault, etc. 2. Chemical hazards are harmful chemicals in the air, water, soil, and food. 3. Physical hazards include radioactivity, fire, earthquake, floods, etc. 4. Biological hazards come from pathogens, pollen, other allergens, and animals such as bees and poisonous snakes.
II. Toxicology: Assessing Chemical Hazards A. Harm from chemical exposure depends on the amount of exposure (dose), frequency of exposure, which chemical is exposed, the body’s detoxification system, and one’s genetic makeup. 1. Toxicity measures how harmful a substance is in causing injury, illness, or death to a living organism. Several factors to consider are: a. dose, the amount of a substance a person is exposed to, b. frequency of exposure, c. age and size of the individual exposed, d. the health of the body’s detoxification system, and e. the genetic makeup of the individual, which is also important for determining sensitivity to a toxin. 2. Five major factors can affect the harm caused by a substance. a. Solubility. Water-soluble toxins can move